Abandoned...continuation.

Nala and Damayanti

Nola leaves Damayanti

Abandoned in the forest, left to die.

“He must have gone to collect fresh herbs and fruits,” she thought. “Nala?” But the forest was silent.

“Nala?”

Something was wrong.  She went around the great banyan tree calling out. “Nala!”

No reply.

Now she shouted through the forest, “My king! Nala!”

But the trees were silent. 

“Alas, my love has gone,” she cried. Half mad she began to ask the trees of the forest, “Where is Nala? Where is the king of the Nishadhas? Did he desert me here in the forest? But how could he? Is this a cruel joke, played by a madman who has lost everything? Nala!”

And as she wandered now through the forest, completely lost, she forgot the path to Vidarbha that Nala had marked out for her. She saw something moving in the bushes. “Nala!” she cried.

“Is that you? Come out and stop this game, and let us go to Vidarbha to see my father.”

 And so she ran from tree to tree, losing herself further in the dark forest until she came to a brook deep in the woods and could walk no further. She thought she could trace his footprints in the sand. But there were only the tracks of the bears that frequented the clear waters of the brook.

“Alas,” she cried. “Nala!” she wailed like a widow, lost in grief, her tears staining her unblemished cheeks. Finally, she sat on a dry trunk in the tall grass by the brook. Unconsoled and grieving, she wept. 

And as she was wept a fierce and powerful a serpent slithered from beneath the trunk. Lost in grief, she didn’t notice how that serpent began to crawl round her leg, catching her in its coils, until it was too late. 

“Nala!” she screamed as the snake bound her closely. “Help me!” 

But Nala was far away by now. The spirit of Kali had drawn him to another part of the woods where he was wandering, lost. 

At this time a hunter was moving through the forest searching for prey. He had long been tracking a stag who had taken water by the brook. Hearing Damayanti’s cries, he was startled and ran to where she sat, struggling with the huge and terrible viper who was poised to strike. 

The hunter drew his bow and let fly a shaft, piercing the viper’s head. As Damayanti shook herself free, the hunter grabbed the snake and with his sharp axe he cut off the serpent’s jeweled head, slaying it in an instant.  

And seeing blood gushing from the serpent’s severed head Damayanti swooned.

The hunter, taking pity on this lost forest maid, carried her to the brook and bathed her forehead with the cool water. When she revived, he gave her some of the food he carried with him and fresh fruit and water to drink.  Faint with fright and hunger, she thanked him and smiled.

But this hunter was enchanted by the beauty of Damayanti.  As her silk garment was wet with the water from the forest stream it clung closely to her slender body. And as she finished eating, the hunter held her in his arms, filled with desire.

“O forest maid with eyes of green,” he said.  “O lovely child whose limbs are nimble as a gazelle, who are you? Why are you here in these dark woods?”

Near unconscious with fright, Damayanti’s eyes went wide. Who was this man?  But, plying her with sweet words of flattery, he began to hold her closer. Seeing her half-clad in a silk garment that left little to his imagination, and noticing her full breasts and round hips, her delicate arms and flawless legs, he became inflamed with lust. 

Looking into her moonlike face, her lotus-like eyes with their curved lashes, he mad with desire. 

Coming to her consciousness, the chaste Damayanti was shocked. She shook the hunter off, pushing him away,  outraged. “How dare you touch the queen of the Nishadhas!” She said. “Nala will kill you.”

The amorous huntsman laughed. “Who is this Nala? We are alone in this forest. Perhaps it is our karma to be together,” he said, touching his knife. He smiled and grasped her arm. “What is not given freely through love,” he said, “may be taken by force.” His knife in hand, his intentions were clear.

The hunter leered and drew her closer in his grasp. But Damayanti, chaste and faithful to her lord, cursed him saying, “If I have been a chaste wife to Nala, if I am pure and constant, then let this beast fall dead on the ground.” And so cursed by the fair Damayanti, the lecherous hunter was struck dead on the ground the instant she uttered her curse,  just as a tree falls when struck by lightning.

And having slain the wicked hunter, the fair and lotus-eyed Queen, Damayanti began to roam through that fearful wilderness alone. All around her she heard the chirp of crickets as she entered deeply in the woods.  She walked softly past the dens of lions, through the hideaways of tigers, stags, buffalos and bears. Different colored birds of varying species fluttered through the trees.   The forest was not uninhabited for there lived many cannibals and carnivorous tribes of men.  She made her way past the lairs of man-eaters and thieves, where wildmen and robbers dwelled. 

Various trees populated the forest from bamboo to Ashvattha to Jambu and Mango and Jack-fruit, Tamarind and Banyans and palms and date-trees.  There were Shal trees, bamboos, and the black ebony trees, Arjuna trees and Nim. 

She walked through groves of Rose-apples and Mangos, Lodh trees and passed fields of sugar cane. There were flowers on her path: Lotuses and Kadambas and Jasmine. Huge and bushy-leaved shade trees gave her shelter and fruit trees such as Jujube and fig-trees gave her fruit.  

Tangled Banyans barred her way as she walked passed brooks and streams and by and by she reached groves of palm trees where there were date palms, coconuts, harita-trees and many others.

Rivulets and streams ran cold through the forest and many different groves of trees were also there. And so Damayanti wandered from grove to grove, lost in the forest, searching for her husband Nala who had been possessed by the demon Kali. 

She passed shady arbours and greeny glens, lakes, and lagoons, crystal pools and raging rivers, birds and beasts of every shape and kind; she saw serpents, forest elves, duendes, dwarves and yakshas. She wondered at many sights on her sojourn through the woods. But nowhere could she find her Nala. And so she mourned and wasted away in anguish, her every limb trembling with sorrow.

She had long since forgotten the way to Vidarbha and famished with hunger and distressed at her separation from Nala she began to lament.

“O king of the Nishadhas, O you of broad chest and mighty arms, where have you gone and why have you left me here in this forest?   O my lord will I die alone in this forest, eaten by bears? Why have you abandoned me?”

And so Damayanti went north until after many days she came to a grove of trees where saintly sages had made their ashram in the woods.